ENDS AND MEANS
plus arsenic smokes, plus Lewisite and many other in-
struments of murder, more efficient and more indiscriminate
than anything known in the past. It is frequently in the
interest of the rulers of a country to disguise the true facts
of contemporary reality under thick veils of misleading
verbiage. It is the business of educators to teach their
pupils to translate these picturesque or empty phrases into
the language of contemporary reality.
Verbal propaganda is not the only nor even, perhaps,
the most effective form of organized suggestion. There
is another kind, specially favoured by modern commercial
propagandists and used from time immemorial by such
noncommercial advertisers as kings, priests and soldiers.
This consists in arbitrarily associating the idea which is to
be suggested with some object, some image, some sound,
some literary description, that is either intrinsically delight-
ful or in some way suggestive of pleasantness. For example,
the advertiser of soap will show a picture of a young
voluptuous female, about to take a bath among plumbing
fixtures of pink marble and chromium. The advertiser of
cigarettes will show people dining in what the lady novelists
describe as' faultless evening dress,' or reproduce the photo-
graph of some well-known film star, millionairess, or titled
lady. The advertiser of whisky will illustrate a group of
handsome men lounging in luscious upholstery and being
waited upon by the most obsequious of family retainers.
The aim in all such cases is the same—to associate the
idea of the goods offered for sale with ideas which the
public already regards as delightful, such as the idea of
erotic pleasure, the idea of personal charm, the idea of
wealth and social superiority. In other cases the idea of
the merchandise is associated with intrinsically delightful
landscapes, with funny or pathetic children, with flowers
or pet animals, with scenes of family life. In countries
where radio advertising is permitted, commercial pro-
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